Kids Taste Test: Strawberry ice cream

Jul. 28, 2010

Ethan Herrick, 7, scoops one of three strawberry ice cream samples into his discerning pallet during a blind taste testing held at Food Blogger Cheryl Herrick's home in Burlington Tuesday afternoon, June 8, 2010. For his part, Ethan enjoyed the quick home-made ice cream the best, but generally approved of all three samples. / RYAN MERCER, Free Press

Taste: Varied among the child judges from "(ice cream) should taste like strawberries with just a hint of milk and sugar" to "should just taste like strawberries." One suggested we change course entirely: "When do we taste the chocolate ice cream?" Another judge had the ultimate test: "I don't like strawberries."

Texture: Again, there was some discrepancy among our discerning judges: "It should be spongy (yes, spongy) and cold." Another wanted it be smooth, but with some bits of strawberry being acceptable. One suggested the ice cream needed to be really cold. And, our strawberry ice cream hater weighed in again, too: "I don't like strawberry."

RECIPE

Pulse and then blend on a high speed until the mix reaches a smooth consistency, stirring frequently at the beginning. Freeze until ready to serve, but not for too long as it will get much harder than normal ice cream because of the high fruit content.

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If your family is like mine, your food decisions are driven by your budget, your sense of nutrition, your desire to eat as much local food as is practical, and the time you have available to prepare it. And then, of course, there's the matter of the preferences of children.

Wouldn't it be fun, we wondered, to harness some of that pickiness and use it for the forces of good? To give children a chance to articulate just what they do and don't like in a way that might help other families eat better food?

Sure!

So at 4 o'clock on a recent afternoon, six children -- a mix of friends and relatives -- gathered at our Burlington home to taste a variety of strawberry ice creams to pronounce a favorite. We wanted to try good Vermont products, but not only the super-premium, super-pricey types. So I marched over to Burlington's City Market and bought a quart of Wilcox Strawberry, Strafford Organic Creamery's Strawberry Ice Cream, and ingredients for "5-Minute Ice Cream," -- a quart of local strawberries, a pint of Monument Farms cream and some bulk turbinado sugar.

Though interrupting the spoon jousts was a small challenge, we called the tasting to order with a meeting where we agreed on our criteria. Then the blind tasting began in a frenzy of spoons, silicone dishes, vehement arguments about whether someone had the right or wrong bowl, and moms running quick relays back and forth from the kitchen.

This was when our 3-year-old taster wandered outside to splash in some water on the back deck, leaving five tasters.

First up was Wilcox, which was perfectly pink, really the classic strawberry ice cream from any parlor. Two tasters said they detected a strange aftertaste, but my sons loved it the best, demonstrating their uncanny ability to bond with anything with an artificial color or ingredient. This was certainly the most affordable product we tasted, at $4.19 a quart, or $.52 a serving. It was also the only one with any artificial ingredients.

Everyone loved the Strafford, which is made from purely organic ingredients that include milk and cream from the Rockbottom Farm's herd of Guernsey cows. It was the color of vanilla ice cream with the faintest pink tint and small pieces of strawberry throughout. I wondered if the pale color was acceptable, but everyone assured me it was pink enough. This was the most expensive of our line-up at $1.42 per serving.

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Then we finished with the 5-Minute Ice Cream that's become a frequent dessert at our house. It's made in a blender and served immediately, which works both for and against it. On one hand, it's just slightly soft and so is a better temperature for tasting the flavors in the ice cream. But it is softer, and doesn't have that frozen creaminess that is a hallmark of the traditional stuff. Because it's mostly fruit, it had a beautiful vibrant nearly neon color that had the panel giving oohs and ahs when the bowls arrived.

The panel rated taste, texture and appearance with a Thumbs-Up, Thumbs-Sideways and Thumbs-Down system. I gave each Thumb Up two points, Sideways Thumbs one point each, and none for the downward pointing thumbs.

The winner? In a tight vote, Strafford Creamery's Strawberry Ice Cream sneaked by with a victory by one point. (See graphic for results.) Readers should know that every ice cream was beloved by at least one of the tasters. (Except by my nephew Colton, who gave every product a double thumbs down in protest of the flavor of strawberries.)

When the official tally was completed and we brought the ice cream back to the table so that anyone could have seconds of their favorite, every carton was pretty thoroughly ravaged.

But then, who could be surprised that Vermont would produce delicious ice cream?

Cheryl Herrick lives in Burlington with her family and blogs about her life in food and family at crankycakes.com. Have a suggestion for a product you'd like to see kids taste and compare? Send an e-mail to rholt@burlingtonfreepress.com with your ideas and how to contact you.